Rewired.GG Makes Europe’s Largest Ever esports Team Investment
7.11.2019 10:00:00 EET | Business Wire | Press release
Rewired.GG, the €50m esports venture fund that invests in the global growth of esports, is delighted to announce that it has invested a further €14 million into Team Vitality, taking its total investment to date to €34 million. Today also marks the opening of the new multi-million euro Team Vitality headquarters in Paris, called V.Hive, which will be open to the public. In a world’s first for an esports team, the 10,700 sq ft V.Hive has more than 530 sq ft of store front in the bustling heart of Paris, and will offer engaging esports discoveries and experiences to anyone who walks in.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191106005183/en/
Team Vitality Counter Strike players (from left to right): Alex 'ALEX' McMeekin, Cédric 'RpK' Guipouy, Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut, Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire. (Photo: Business Wire)
Team Vitality is one of the biggest esports teams in Europe and boasts some of the world’s top esports players and coaches. It is one of only ten European esports teams in the League of Legends European Championship franchise; and has recently won the 2019 World Championship for Rocket League, won the 7th season of the prestigious ECS tournament for Counter-Strike:Global Offensive and took 3rd place in the 2019 FIFA World Championship. It is also one of only a few esports teams with blue chip sponsors such as Orange, Renault, Red Bull and adidas.
Rewired.GG forecasts that esports will rival traditional sports such as soccer and basketball and will be a major investment category for institutional investors, funds and investment managers. By 2020 it is estimated that the monthly global esports audience size will be nearly 600 million*, equivalent to the current global audience of the English Premier League.
Today’s investment, along with the €20 million that Team Vitality received from Rewired.GG in November 2018, is thought to be the largest investment into a European esports team to date. The Team, which was founded in 2013 with €10,000, aims to be one of the world’s first $1 billion esports teams.
The funds will be used to support the continued growth of Team Vitality as the team pursues further expansion across India and China, where it is acquiring new players and launching a network of esports academies. Funds will also be used to acquire new players and to launch new lines of merchandise globally: as well as opening V.Hive, the team has also today launched its first Team Vitality brand of limited-edition adidas trainers.
As with any major sport, the business of esports is based on media rights, advertising, prize money, merchandise, sponsorship and partnerships. Revenue from these are growing exponentially.
In 2017 it was estimated that esports generated $655 million in annual revenue, including 38% from sponsorships and 14% from media rights. By 2022, it is forecast that media rights will reach 40% of total esports revenue and that total global esports monetization will reach $3bn.*
CEO of Team Vitality, Nicolas Maurer said:
“In 2013 we started Team Vitality with €10,000. Today Team Vitality has built amazing teams that regularly win tournaments all over the world, and a strong brand that is backed by our amazing and dedicated fans and our premium sponsors. Receiving further backing by Rewired.GG after the initial investment of €20M in November 2018 is a testament to the strength not only of the team but also a comment on the growth of the sector as a whole. This investment will go towards continuing to turn Team Vitality into a global esports brand and we look forward to providing further updates on our future wins as we continue to pursue V for Victory.”
Amit Jain, Principal at Rewired.GG commented:
“Any industry with an audience that’s growing rapidly into hundreds of millions is hugely exciting and esports is no exception. We’ve seen the current esports trend many times before in the tech sector: first the number of eyeballs grows exponentially, and then full monetization comes later. We believe that esports is one of the world’s fastest growing industries today, and the success of teams like Team Vitality show that there is real opportunity for growth in this market. We are well on the way to building one of the world’s first billion-dollar esports teams.”
-ends-
Footnotes and References
*BBC
Video of esports world champion, Rocket League player Kyle ‘Scrub Killa’ Robertson, and esports super-coach Mike ‘Gregan’ Ellis, are available to embed into stories relating to this release, using these links:
Gregan: https://youtu.be/uLN4S1LFVgI
Scrub Killa: https://youtu.be/LSg-rwTeBHk
Images are available to download here and must be attributed to: Team Vitality: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ol4_J_pdo8S7c6W-YZ8tkgTrfOFPd4Xd
About Rewired.GG
Rewired.GG is an esports venture fund investing in the talent and ideas that are driving the global growth of esports. In November Rewired.GG 2018 backed European esports leader Team Vitality with €20m of investment to create a global esports brand. The investment thesis of the Rewired.GG esports venture fund is that esports is at an exciting tipping point. The NFL earns around $50 per fan, but that number for esports is only $3.20*. Rewired.GG predicts that this upside potential revenue growth per fan combined with rapidly growing global audiences with rapidly-growing spending power, will generate significant future returns.
About Team Vitality
Team Vitality is an international esports organisation that was founded by Nicolas Maurer and Fabien Devide in 2013. The team has players from ten different nationalities and boasts some of the biggest players in the world, including the world No.1 Fifa player, world No.1 CS:GO player, and the world champion Rocket League squad. Team Vitality players compete in a portfolio of 9 games with 10 competitive teams. Team Vitality's main League of Legends roster competes in the League of Legends European Championship (LEC), which they joined after purchasing Gambit Gaming's spot. They are sponsored by Orange, Red Bull, Renault and Adidas.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191106005183/en/
Contact information
To request interviews please use the contact details below:
Helen Tarbet / Simon Compton / Kim van Beeck / Hannah Ratcliff (Buchanan Communications)
rewired@buchanan.uk.com
+44 207 466 5000
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Lenovo Powers Esports World Cup 2026 as a Founding Partner28.7.2026 12:00:00 EEST | Press release
The Esports Foundation (EF) and Lenovo today announced an expanded partnership, with Lenovo becoming a Global Partner of the Esports World Cup 2026 (EWC) and powering the world’s largest esports event with its high-performance Legion gaming devices. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260712251027/en/ The EWC 2026 will be bringing the world’s largest esports event to Paris for the first time, welcoming more than 2,000 players, 200 esports teams and fans from over 100 countries between July 6 and August 23. As EWC expands into the international stage, Lenovo joins the event’s Founding Partner roster, bringing its latest Legion desktop PCs and monitors to competition arenas, training facilities, broadcast studios, and festival spaces during the seven-week event. “We are excited to welcome Lenovo as a Global Founding Partner for the Esports World Cup 2026, as we prepare to bring thousands of players and millions of f
Ten Finalists Announced for the Reply AI Film Festival, the International Competition Bringing Together Cinema and Artificial Intelligence28.7.2026 11:00:00 EEST | Press release
The Reply AI Film Festival returns for its third edition, reaffirming its role as a meeting point for cinema, creativity and artificial intelligence. The international competition created by Reply – open to creatives experimenting with new AI technologies and tools in the production of short films – has announced its ten finalists. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260728146486/en/ The international competition created by Reply – open to creatives experimenting with new AI technologies and tools in the production of short films – has announced its ten finalists. The festival will take place in Veniceduring the days of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival of La Biennale di Venezia. Selected from more than 3,000 short films submitted from 76 countries, the finalist works will take centre stage at the awards ceremony organised by Reply and Mastercard, scheduled for Sunday, 6 September, at the Match Point Are
USHIO Industry & Entertainment Announces Trademark Licensing Agreement for OSRAM-Branded Professional Technical Lighting Products28.7.2026 09:30:00 EEST | Press release
USHIO Industry & Entertainment (USHIO INE) today announced the signing of a trademark licensing agreement with ams OSRAM, that enables the company to continue offering designated professional technical lighting products under the trusted OSRAM product brand. The agreement marks an important milestone following USHIO's acquisition of the former OSRAM Entertainment & Industry business and reinforces the company's commitment to ensuring continuity for customers, products and long-standing partnerships worldwide. For customers, the agreement provides continuity for professional technical lighting products that have earned a strong reputation across entertainment, cinema, industrial and other specialty lighting applications. These products will continue to be supported by USHIO Industry & Entertainment's global organization, technical expertise and customer service. "The signing of this agreement provides clarity and continuity for our customers around the world," said Takuya Matsumoto, Pre
Grindr for Equality Commits to Connecting 10M to HIV Prevention by 202827.7.2026 17:31:00 EEST | Press release
Today at the 2026 International AIDS Conference, Grindr for Equality committed to connecting ten million LGBTQ+ people to HIV prevention by 2028, leveraging its platform reach to advance the global effort to end HIV by 2030. The commitment is rooted in Closing the Gap, a new Grindr for Equality report drawing on survey data from Grindr users across ten countries. The central finding is consistent across countries: people know about PrEP but they are not taking it. The barrier is access and the funding that existed to address it is disappearing. "Connecting people is what Grindr does at a scale and in communities that traditional public health systems don't effectively reach," said George Arison, CEO and Chairman of Grindr (NYSE: GRND). "The global HIV response is losing critical funding at the exact moment we should be accelerating to end HIV by 2030. Grindr has the reach and the responsibility to help close that access gap -- and we are proud to step up." Fifteen million people use Gr
InterSystems Launches Data Studio AI Assistant to Accelerate Enterprise Data Exploration and Insights27.7.2026 17:00:00 EEST | Press release
InterSystems, a creative data technology provider powering some of the world's most important applications, today announced the general availability of InterSystems Data Studio™ AI Assistant, a new generative AI-powered extension for InterSystems Data Studio that helps organizations more easily understand, navigate, query, and visualize data through natural language interactions. As organizations move from AI experimentation to production deployments, many are discovering that the greatest challenge is not the AI model itself, but providing AI systems with access to trusted, current, and business-ready information. Enterprise data is often fragmented across applications, databases, cloud services, files, data warehouses, and departmental silos, making it difficult for users and AI systems to generate reliable insights. “Organizations are increasingly looking for ways to turn their data into actionable intelligence without adding complexity,” said Scott Gnau, Senior Vice President, Data
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom